Recycling

As detailed in the recent announcement by Governor Cuomo, New York State is about to embark on an ambitious program to expand the Five Cities Energy Plan initiative, while also establishing the "New York State Community Partnership" program that will help additional municipalities.[read more]

Methane emissions from fuel production have become an issue for regulators concerned about greenhouse gasses, as well as for oil and gas producers who see money going up in flames as gas flares. innovators are finding ways to capture the wasted natural gas and profitably use it to fuel their operations.[read more]

New York City, following the lead of San Francisco and Portland, has banned styrofoam containers in an effort to change the nature of its waste stream, as the type of styrofoam being banned cannot be recycled. The ban will result in the use of substitute forms of packaging--probably more expensive plastics.[read more]

When I recently set out to write a story about the energy possibilities of garbage, which was portrayed as nothing but a sci-fi gag in the movie Back to the Future Part II, I knew I had to check in with National Geographic Emerging Explorer T.H. Culhane.[read more]

Lancaster, California was one of the first municipalities to push the envelope on sustainability by requiring homes to be solar-ready, as part of Mayor Rex Parris’ goal of becoming a net-zero city. Parris has now taken his sustainability goals one step further by addressing water consumption in new homes.[read more]

Some citizens who are concerned about the long-term viability of the electric grid will no doubt want to purchase their own solar systems with inverters and back-up batteries. I won't discourage those who want to do this–the systems may prove to be of assistance. But I see no reason to subsidize these purchases.[read more]

Stream video on your smartphone, or use its GPS for an hour or two, and you’ll probably end up seeing the battery drain significantly. As data rates climb and smartphones adopt more power-hungry features, battery life has become a large and growing concern.[read more]

Most of us are concerned about how climate change will affect our corners of the world, but we need to be thinking about our most vital natural resources: tropical forests. Tropical and subtropical forests are the most biodiverse areas on the planet, and they even give us most of the oxygen we breathe.[read more]

This could be a classic win-win solution: A system proposed by researchers at MIT recycles materials from discarded car batteries — a potential source of lead pollution — into new, long-lasting solar panels that provide emissions-free power.[read more]

In December 2013, the Sanitation Department was collecting recyclables from New York City residences and institutions at a rate of just over 16%; and it is just about the same today. In view of the ambitious intentions of the city’s landmark recycling statute this is discouraging. But it doesn’t tell the whole story.[read more]

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who took office in 2002, compiled an impressive track record in addressing environmental health and sustainability issues in New York City. But he didn’t start off as a big fan of recycling or of Local Law 19 of 1989, the City’s recycling Magna Carta.[read more]

It’s estimated that more than half of U.S. energy — from vehicles and heavy equipment, for instance — is wasted as heat. Mostly, this waste heat simply escapes into the air. But that’s beginning to change, thanks to thermoelectric innovators such as MIT’s Gang Chen.[read more]

New York City’s landmark recycling statute -- which provided residents here with curbside collection of recyclables for the first time in modern history and generated momentum for stepped-up recycling in cities around the nation -- is celebrating its 25th birthday this summer.[read more]

Prolonged drought is one of the hallmarks of a warming climate. Texas has been in the grips of widespread drought since late 2010; California, where my daughters used to live, is in its third year of drought, with 100 percent of the state experiencing “severe” to “exceptional” drought conditions.[read more]